IISc and NHA Showcase Responsible AI Innovation for India’s Healthcare Future
CDPG’s Trusted AI Platform Powers National Health Data Hackathon Under AB PM-JAY Initiative
By Suman Munshi, Chief Editor, IBG NEWS
Bengaluru, May 12, 2026:
In a major step toward building secure and AI-driven public healthcare infrastructure, the National Health Authority (NHA), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with the IndiaAI Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, successfully concluded the AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026 on May 9.
The hackathon highlighted India’s growing ambitions to integrate Artificial Intelligence into healthcare governance while maintaining strict standards of privacy, trust, and data security.
AI Innovation Without Compromising Patient Privacy
The technical backbone of the national-level hackathon was developed by the Centre of Data for Public Good (CDPG), a programme operating under the Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID) at IISc Bengaluru.
Using its advanced Trusted AI Data Platform, CDPG created a secure and privacy-preserving environment that enabled innovators, startups, researchers, and AI developers to build and test AI models on curated real-world healthcare datasets without exposing sensitive patient information.
The initiative is being viewed as a significant milestone in India’s efforts to create AI-ready Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for healthcare systems.
Addressing Healthcare Claims Adjudication Challenges
The hackathon was conceptualised by the NHA to solve large-scale healthcare claims adjudication challenges under flagship schemes such as Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY.
Participants from across India worked on developing scalable AI-based solutions capable of:
- Faster claims processing,
- Improved fraud detection,
- Automated adjudication systems,
- And more transparent healthcare claim management.
The showcase also featured high-level discussions on the future of AI-powered healthcare governance, fraud prevention, and interoperable public health platforms.
Building Trusted Digital Infrastructure
According to officials, one of the core achievements of the initiative was demonstrating that advanced AI innovation can coexist with strong governance and privacy safeguards.
To support the challenge, CDPG deployed:
- Sandboxed development environments,
- Hosted AI model access,
- Curated healthcare datasets,
- And blind evaluation systems using unseen datasets.
This governed framework ensured that participants could innovate responsibly while complying with stringent data protection and trust standards.
Leadership Views on Responsible AI
NHA CEO Sunil Kumar Barnwal stated that large-scale healthcare projects such as Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY require systems that are not only efficient but also transparent, trustworthy, and intelligent. He noted that CDPG’s Trusted AI Data Platform provided the technological foundation necessary to operationalise the hackathon at scale.
Meanwhile, Dr. Inder Gopal, Research Professor at IISc and Chairman of CDPG, emphasised that public-sector AI initiatives cannot succeed without trusted digital infrastructure. He described the collaboration as an important step toward building secure and interoperable AI-ready healthcare ecosystems for India.
A New Model for Public-Sector AI
Experts involved in the initiative believe the hackathon represents a replicable blueprint for deploying privacy-preserving AI innovation across sensitive public-sector domains.
NHA Joint Secretary Jyoti Yadav described the project as a practical answer to one of digital healthcare’s biggest challenges — enabling AI innovation without compromising patient data security.
Rakshit Ramesh, Vice President – Analytics at CDPG, added that the project demonstrated how production-grade AI innovation could be developed within tightly governed and secure environments.
Towards India’s AI-Driven Healthcare Future
The successful conclusion of the hackathon marks an important development in India’s efforts to create intelligent, data-driven, and universally accessible healthcare systems powered by trusted AI infrastructure.
Industry observers note that the NHA–CDPG collaboration could become a benchmark model for future AI deployments in healthcare, governance, and other high-impact public systems where privacy, security, and public trust remain critical.
The winners of the hackathon were felicitated during a special award ceremony held on May 9, recognising outstanding contributions across all three challenge categories.
